A pathologist has told a murder trial jury of the injuries inflicted to a two-year-old who died from brain damage.

Babysitter Suzanne Holdsworth, 34, denies murdering toddler Kyle Taylor, also known as Fisher, by striking his head against banisters at her home of Millpool Close, Hartlepool on July 21, 2004.

Home Office pathologist Dr James Sunter told the court how he carried out a post mortem on the toddler.

He said X-rays were taken but no fractures were revealed, and he detailed a number of injuries on Kyle's head and body yesterday. He talked the Teesside Crown Court jury through a series of photos of the fatal injuries.

Dr Sunter said the most significant of these was a "strange" area of bruising on top of the youngster's head.

Dr Tony Waterston, a consultant paediatrician at Newcastle General Hospital where Kyle died two days after he was taken ill, said Kyle's mother, 20-year-old Clare Fisher, at first seemed unemotional, appeared "unconcerned" and did not understand the implications of the injuries.